Legal Guardian
by dragonflybeach
Summary: They're grown men, who have killed things that she didn't know existed. But she still drives out to Rufus' cabin on her days off, to keep an eye on Bobby's boys.


It was really ridiculous, she told herself. They're grown men. They've killed things she doesn't even know exist. They've saved hundreds of lives, including hers.

They don't need her to look out for them.

But she drives out to Rufus' cabin on her days off anyway, because she knows Bobby would want her to keep an eye on his boys.

Only once have they ever even been there. Logic tells her that they travel the country to fight the things that go bump in the night. The only reason they would come to the cabin would be to hide, to recover from the last job, or if there's nothing else to fight at the moment.

They never run out of things to fight.

The one time she did find them there, it was because they were hurt and needed a few days to patch themselves up.

That's the reason she keeps going back.

This time, she spotted the glint of sunlight off a chrome bumper before she rounded the last bend of the dirt road, and her heart caught in her throat.

Dean was outside on the phone, and raised a gun in her direction for a moment before recognizing the vehicle and returning the weapon to its holster, never stopping his obviously intense conversation.

" ... don't give a rat's ass what Garth says Hesiod and Virgil say about them!" She heard as she got out of the truck. Dean looked up and nodded, then turned his attention back to the call. "There's got to be more lore, Irv! Is there anyone else we can call? Anybody else ever run into one of these damn things?" Dean sighed loudly and nodded. "Yeah, I know you will. Appreciate it." He then removed the phone from between his left shoulder and his ear with his right hand, thumbing the end button, and keeping his left arm close to his side. He didn't turn away fast enough to keep her from seeing that his right eye and cheek were swollen and bruised.

Before she could ask about it, Dean turned to her. "Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, always keep a gallon in the truck. Why?" She asked, turning back to retrieve the jug from behind the seat.

"Sam's sick," was the only explanation as Dean led the way into the cabin.

She had to blink a few times to adjust her eyes from the sunshine to the dim light inside. By that time, Dean had taken the jug of water from her hand and was pouring some in a glass.

"Sammy?" he walked across the room to the figure in the bed. "Jody's here." Dean knelt beside the bed, putting the glass on the floor and gathering Sam into his arms. He awkwardly braced his left upper arm behind Sam's shoulders while holding his forearm out at an odd angle, helping the younger brother sit up. "Here, sit up and drink some water and then say hello. C'mon. We gotta keep you hydrated."

Jody crossed the room and knelt beside Dean, helping support Sam's back. "He's burning up." she muttered.

"Yeah," Dean nodded, prodding at Sam's mouth again with the cup. "C'mon, Sammy, drink a little more. Just small sips."

Sam whined in protest, but allowed Dean to pour a little more water in his mouth.

"That's good, Sammy." Dean praised. "That's good. One more sip and I'll leave you alone for a little while."

Sam swallowed once more before his head lolled to the side weakly, causing Dean to hiss in pain as he caught Sam with his left arm.

Jody helped lower Sam to the bed and then grabbed Dean's shoulder before he could move away.

His left arm was firmly wrapped in an ace bandage and his hand was shades of black, blue, and purple.

"Your arm is broken." She pointed out.

"Yeah, not the first time," Dean shrugged. "Gotta fix up Sammy before I can get it looked at. I'm not leaving him when he's this sick."

"How long have you two been like this?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Hunt went south," Dean snorted. "Sam killed it, and I thought he was ok, but then a few hours later, he started throwing up. By the time I got us here, he was like this." He gestured at the bed. "He can't keep anything but water down, and not much of that. Doubled over with stomach cramps, blinding headache, fever so high he's been delirious at points. He's been like this for two days."

"And why, exactly, did you not take _both_ of you to the nearest hospital?" Jody demanded in her mom voice.

"Because Sam was bitten by a harpy!" Dean shouted.

"A harpy?" she frowned. "Like a Greek mythology harpy?"

"Yes, a harpy!" He snapped. "Obviously not quite so mythological. Also not supposed to be this far from the Mediterranean, but the supernatural world's kinda gone to hell in a handbasket since the whole Eve thing."

"What are you going to hunt next, Rodents of Unusual Size? Bigfoot?" she argued while stomping over to the kitchen area.

"Bigfoot's not real." Dean rolled his eyes

She stopped and looked up at him for a moment. "Really? But Rodents of Unusual Size are?"

"You haven't seen some of the things we've hunted." he told her.

She began pouring water into a large bowl.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Dean grabbed for the jug.

"We've got to get his fever down!" Jody insisted.

"Yeah, but we're running low on drinking water!" he growled. "I'll get water out of the creek to wipe Sam down with."

Jody tugged the bowl away from him. "I'll bring you more water." She grabbed a towel from the counter. "I'll bring you as much water as you need."

She put the bowl on the floor as she sat down on the edge of the bed. Sam's eyes barely opened, blinking a few times as he apparently tried to focus.

"Hey Sam," she spoke softly and gently. "It's Jody. I'm gonna try to get your fever down some, ok?"

His head barely nodded as his eyes slid closed again.

She dipped the towel into the water and wrung it out before tenderly blotting Sam's face.

Dean came over and tried to take the damp towel from her hand.

"I got this." she pulled the towel back from him. "You sit down before you fall down. You're practically dead on your feet. As soon as we get his fever down, you're going to get that arm looked at."

Dean grumbled something under his breath, but grudgingly sat down on the floor beside the bed.

"When's the last time you've given him any Advil or Tylenol or something?" she asked, pulling up Sam's shirt.

"Haven't," Dean huffed. "Didn't want to give him anything that would make it worse. I've been on the phone with everyone I could reach, trying to find out about the treatment for harpy venom. No one we know has ever actually seen one. Garth, he's a hunter, he said he read everything he could find and there's no mention of harpies being poisonous but obviously they are."

Jody gasped as she pushed Sam's shirt up to his neck and saw his chest. "Shit," she hissed and then pulled one his arms out of the sleeve. She reached across the bed to shove the curtain aside, letting in light.

"When did this rash start?" she demanded, turning Sam's arm back and forth to get a better look.

"I first noticed it on his arms yesterday morning, about twenty seven hours after the harpy bit him." Dean raised up onto his knees to see what was going on. "It spread across his chest and back by last night."

"And when did the fever start?" she tossed the towel aside and reached both hands into Sam's hair, gently running her fingers over his scalp.

_"He"_ Dean tipped his head at his brother. "said he thought he might have had a little fever the night before the harpy," he rolled his eyes. "But I noticed it day before yesterday, a few hours af..."

"It's not harpy venom," Jody shook her head. "He's got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever."

"What?" Dean frowned.

She grabbed Dean's good hand and placed his index finger on Sam's head. "Feel that? It's a tick."

"I am so cutting that fucking hair," Dean growled.

"We've got to get him to the hospital." Jody announced, pulling down Sam's shirt and tugging the covers off him.

"Are you sure about this?" Dean asked, eyes narrowed.

Jody closed her eyes and clenched her jaw before answering. "This is what killed my son."

Dean was off the floor in a blur of plaid, pushing Jody aside before she could move and pulling

Sam toward the side of the bed. "I'll be damned if he's gonna survive being possessed by Satan and die of a bug bite."

Dean bent down, lifting Sam as much as he could with his one good arm, while Jody moved to help on the other side. Between the two of them, they managed to get Sam out to Jody's truck and loaded into the back seat.

"Get in, you're going too." She ordered.

"I'm damn sure not letting you take Sam to the hospital without me!" he snapped. "Give me a minute."

Dean went back into the cabin long enough to make sure everything was turned off and locked the door on his way out. He climbed into the backseat of the truck, kneeling in the floorboard.

"Just hang on a little bit longer, Sammy," he soothed, brushing Sam's hair away from his face. "We're gonna get you to a doctor."

Jody reached back, handing Dean a bottle of water.

"Keep trying to give him a little at a time." she instructed. "And here," she rummaged around in the console and came up with a handful of napkins. "Rub him down with some of the water, see if you can get his fever down."

At the hospital, Jody told the brothers to stay put while she got help. A handful of orderlies came out with a gurney for Sam and a wheelchair for Dean. Dean protested until Jody promised that she would stay with Sam while Dean's arm was set.

Two hours later, a nurse pushed Dean, in a wheelchair into the room.

"What are the doctors saying?" he asked without preamble, pointing to the bed.

"They're waiting for labs results, but they're pretty sure it is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever." she told him. "They've gone ahead and started him on the antibiotics for it, and they've given him stuff for nausea and to bring the fever down, and they're giving him fluids." She pointed to the iv bags hung over Sam's head. "If by some chance it turns out to be something else, none of this stuff will hurt him, but they're pretty sure. And the fact that his temperature is normal right now seems to indicate that we're on the right track." She gestured to the cast. "What about you?"

"Both bones broken." Dean shrugged. "Set and casted and a lecture for not coming in sooner. Is he unconscious or sedated?"

"Mostly sedated. All the meds they've given him, on top of how weak he was, he was out like a light. He asked about you, though, in the few minutes he was awake and lucid. He wanted to get up and go find you." Dean nodded. "You seem much calmer than you were before." she pointed out.

"Have you ever had the shit they give you when they set a broken arm? You feel really, really good for a few hours." he joked, and then turned serious again. "Sam's gonna be ok?"

She nodded. "The doctors think we got him here in time to prevent organ failure. He's probably going to have to have to be on iv antibiotics for several days, and hopefully there's no further complications."

"But there could be," Dean poked at his cast, not meeting her eyes.

"Owen didn't develop the rash until the very end." She looked up at the monitors displaying Sam's vital signs. "They kept telling us he just had a virus. By the time they realized what was actually wrong with him and got him started on the antibiotics, it was too late. His system was already shutting down. Sam developed the rash early enough to be able to get him treatment."

Dean yawned. "You saved his life. I probably would have just kept trying to treat him myself."

"You've got to stop thinking that hospitals and police are your enemy." Jody shrugged. "Sometimes we're the good guys."

"Hard to think that way when you've had it drilled into your head all your life that if Sam or I get hurt and have to go to a doctor, the police will come take us away." Dean yawned again.

"I'm not going to take ... " Jody began, but was interrupted by a hospital employee coming into the room.

"Hey, how's everyone this evening?" the young man asked. "I know, silly question, because if you were all good, you wouldn't be here." He walked over to the bed and looked at Sam's hospital bracelet. "I'm here to take Mr. Winchester up to his room. You can fol ... "

"Up to his room?" Dean asked, surging to his feet.

Jody stood and put a hand on his chest. "Sam's being admitted for a few days. It's ok. The charge nurse on the med-surg unit is married to one of my deputies. Everything will be fine."

"Can't they just give him some pills?" Dean gestured at Sam. "And let me take him home?"

"No," Jody said firmly. "He needs the ivs for the next couple days."

"But I ... " Dean shoved his good hand through his hair and then waved it toward Sam again.

"I know," Jody nodded. "I've made arrangements for you to be able to stay with him."

"What?" Dean frowned.

"Get out of the man's way." Jody rolled her eyes and tugged Dean to the side.

The medical assistant has finished unplugging Sam's assorted wires from the monitors, and stood by the head of the bed, ready to roll the patient out the door.

Jody and Dean followed them upstairs, to a room that had had the second patient bed removed in favor of two recliners. There were three sandwiches, two sodas, and an apple sitting on the tray table.

Dean looked at Jody in confusion while the nurse plugged Sam's wires into the monitor and reset his iv.

"You need to eat, and you need some rest. You're worn out from trying to take care of Sam." Jody informed him. She held up a hand to cut off his protest before it could start. "I'm going to be here in case Sam needs anything. You're going to eat and then Bonnie's going to bring you a pain pill because what they gave you in the ER will be wearing off soon. And then you're going to take a nap."

Dean grabbed a sandwich off the tray and muttered something that probably didn't need to be repeated. He ate the sandwich, and then a second one, and didn't complain much when the nurse brought him a pain pill and a warm blanket.

After another promise from Jody that she would wake him if Sam needed him, he was asleep within minutes.

Jody scooted her chair closer to Sam's bed, and flipped on the tv. After cycling through the channels twice to determine there wasn't much on, she settled on My Cousin Vinnie.

Half an hour later, Sam's head raised a few inches off the pillow.

"Where Dean?" he slurred softly.

"He's right there," Jody thumbed over her shoulder. "He's asleep. Do you want some water?"

Sam nodded slightly, so Jody poured a little from the pitcher the nurse had brought into a cup and held it to his lips. He drank a few swallows, and she pulled the cup away.

"Make sure that stays down for a minute, and you can have some more." she promised. "How do you feel?"

"Think I'd have to get better to die," he grumbled.

"Yeah, you've been pretty sick, kiddo." she brushed the hair back from his face. "But they've got you on some antibiotics now, so you should feel better by tomorrow."

"Dean ok?" he asked, yawning.

"He's fine," she soothed. "He got his arm set and put in a cast. He's just tired, been pushing himself a little to hard the past few days."

"I was sick before the harpy." he said.

"Yeah, it wasn't the harpy," Jody agreed. "You've got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from being bitten by a tick."

"Don't let Dean cut my hair." Sam mumbled, his eyes starting to close again.

"I won't, honey," she pulled the covers up to his chin. "I promise."

She settled back in the recliner and watched the movie.

Later the nurse came in and changed out Sam's empty iv bag for a full one.

"So who are these guys?" she asked Jody.

"My kids," Jody smiled, brushing Sam's hair back again.

The nurse rolled her eyes. "Come on. They're not even ten years younger than you are. I'm serious."

Jody looked from Sam to Dean and back to the nurse. "I am too."


End file.
